Forecast

NYRA's future in play with budget talks

Lawmakers bet that putting it in budget plans may get them through finish line

By Rick Karlin
| on March 16, 2017

Albany

Lawmakers last year passed a bill to take management of the Saratoga Race Course as well as the Belmont and Aqueduct tracks out of state control, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed the measure.

Now legislators are trying again, but rather than using a stand-alone bill, they have included it in their budget proposals.

Their plan to re-privatize the New York Racing Association would come without the existing monetary strings.

"It removes the additional oversight from the Franchise Oversight Board," Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, said of the proposal.

Cuomo's plan would codify the ability of a special Franchise Oversight Board, which is currently in place, to hold back revenues from video lottery terminal parlors, known as "racinos," if they concluded that NYRA deviated from spending plans and guidelines.

It wasn't immediately clear how the Cuomo administration might deal with the budget plan.

Proposals such as this can be viewed as bargaining positions by the three sides — the Democratic-controlled Assembly, Republican Senate and governor's office — as they enter the final weeks toward finalizing the 2017-18 budget, which is due on April 1.

And the proposal was one of several gambling-related matters that lawmakers addressed in their budget plans.

Additionally, Senate Republicans called for allowing online poker, which is currently illegal in New York. Their plan calls for a $10 million licensing fee paid over 60 months, or about $2 million annually. There also would be a 15 percent tax on gross revenue.

The Assembly has no such provision in its budget proposal. But in February, Democratic Assemblyman Gary Pretlow of Westchester County, who heads the chamber's Racing and Wagering Committee, sponsored a measure to legalize online poker. It hasn't moved forward.

Lawmakers and the governor appear to be in accord on some gambling issues.

The Senate proposal includes establishing a $1.25 million payment to Madison County in central New York to deal with the impact of gambling — an item similar to a proposal in the governor's plan.

The Oneida Nation in 2015 opened the Yellow Brick Road Casino in Chittenango, Madison County. County officials have noted that the tribe's larger, well-established Turning Stone casino in Verona, Oneida County, provides revenues to that county in the form of a share of state revenue from the gaming hall.

Still, the NYRA issue may loom over other gambling topics, given its statewide implications and its longevity.

While the association runs three tracks, Woerner noted that thoroughbred racing also supports horse farms all over the state and "has broad statewide impact."

NYRA has been under state control for almost five years. In 2012, reeling from a scandal over errors and a coverup regarding betting payouts, and with an earlier bankruptcy filing, NYRA was placed under a control board, with Cuomo appointing seven of the 17 members.

Horsemen as well as supporters of the Saratoga track have for several years called for NYRA to go back into private hands. They say re-privatization would give them more flexibility and remove uncertainty about plans for things such as improvements at the Saratoga track.

The governor's office has maintained that the oversight board has done a good job in righting NYRA's finances and expanding its audience.